To serve the Lord and share his Gospel

Author Archives

Sorry, its going to be short this week. but I just want to let you know thaaaat, Both Hna Zelada and Hna Virula had changes. They are both in Monchito, Santa Barbara and I´m still here in El Dorado. My new companion is Hna Cardona. She is super sweet, and we get along very well. Its incredible to me how different we are, but how we are all children of God and we each have something special that we can do that no one else can. President Dester is definately very inspired, and I have learned a lot from his example of lookin to God for guidance.

This week I had my first baptism. Helen´s family just reactivated in the church and have this incredible drive to get to the temple. Her Dad Porfilio is so touching, hes very shy, and had a lot of fear, but when we asked him to give the closing prayer at the baptism he did it. I loved to see the tears in his eyes as he gave the prayer, I know this will be a good motivation for them to get to the temple.

Also, I´d just like to invite you all to give a small act of service this week. to look for the people in need instead of waiting for them to ask you. I´ve seen the consequences when we leave our beloved brothers and sisters to fall because we´re so concerned in our own lives, and because its not ¨our responsability¨. I know you all do so much, and I admire you for all you do.

Okay, so this week has basically been awesome. It’s crazy how bad things can happen during the week and then by the end everything is better, and from the outside nothing really changes, or doesn´t change very much, but what really changes is who you are, or your perception of things.

This week we have seen huge progress in our area, Hna Zelada can see it better than I because she has been there longer, and to be honest is more perceptive than I am when it comes to that. I love it, because she is teaching me how to do it for myself. I just hope I can learn everything I can from her before cambios. With the number of missionaries coming in its likely that I will be training, or at least senior companion. It’s actually really scary and I try not to think about it. The longer I´m out here, the more I realize how much of a child I am in the gospel and its principles. and then I think about the fact that I´m supposed to be teaching it to people who know less than I do? It really is the spirit that does any lasting teaching.

Well, that got sidetracked. We had a mission coordination meeting this week, and almost all the leadership was there. Which I´ll be honest is a vast improvement from the week before when only the Relief Society President showed up. We also had the Ward Council Meeting and helped set goals for the next year. I really am so excited! ha, I know that working together with a spirit of love and following the Directions of the spirit we can be instruments in the Lord´s hands.

I also learned that sometimes problems seem a lot bigger than they are. Or maybe more accurately with the Lord´s help, problems that seem insurmountable can work out.

I also love seeing people progress. It’s something that I didn´t notice as much in my first area. I think part of the reason was because I wasn´t looking, but now, every little step forward brings me such joy.

I learned some things this week about pride, and selfishness, and humility. I lot of times when we have problems it’s because we are thinking only about ourselves and what we lack, or what would be easier to do. Or at least that was the case for me. Once I started to realized, not only in my mind, but in my heart everything changed.

Hey Guys!
I hope your Christmas Season has been fantastic. I loved hearing about your Christmas Adventures, and what’s going on in your lives.
This week has basically been my favorite week in my entire mission, ha, and not just because I got to Skype with my family, although that was definitely a highlight. I really feel like the lessons we have been teaching have been taught by the spirit, we’ve seen some amazing progress in some less active members that we have been visiting, as well as our investigators.
I forgot to tell you about the Christmas Party we had with our Zone and the mission president, it was awesome, we got to watch It’s a Wonderful Life and sing Christmas Songs.
In Latin America to celebrate Christmas they set off a bunch of fireworks at midnight. Hna Zelada told me about it and I told her to wake me up so we could watch them. The next morning I woke up to my alarm and wondered what had happened. It wasn’t until she was telling a member that I found out that she had tried to wake me up and I had said, “okay” and rolled over and went back to sleep. Ha, I have no recollection of it. I think I was tired because our area here is much larger than my last area.
I have a lot more things to tell you guys, but I have to go.
Love you!!!!

My letters are going to be shorter for the next couple of months because the internet cafes here in El Dorado are kind of pricey…well everything is more expensive, but we have the same alotment of money, which is good, helps me budget. I´m also eating more healthy because we don´t have a cocinera and I get to cook my own food. its a little time consuming which is frustrating, but I´m learning how to cook all sorts of Typical guatamalan foods. Including fried platanos #ever´day #butreallyonlyonce they were really good.

I love this season because we have the oppotunity to talk about Christ and all he has done for us. we get the opportunity to recognize his part in our lives.

This week I´ve also been learning how to wait on the Lord´s time. All my life, I´ve always felt that if I wanted something to happen, all I had to do was just try hard enough, and it would work out. But sometimes It doesn´t happen that way, people have thier agency. Faith in the Lord also means Faith in his timing. Pray like everthing depends on the Lord and then Work like everthing depends on you.

I also feel like I´m learning who I really am. Maybe more than that I´m learning to recognize my own talents, ha and my own faults. but its a good thing.

So one of the Chrismas traditions here is to eat pig head. well we were visiting a house of a member and she I was talking with Hna Zelada when Hna Crisia decided she wanted to show us the pig head. She came up behind me and I was so scared when I looked and saw this pig head staring back at me. Hna Zelada had a good laugh at that one.

I´m so sorry I didn´t get a letter out last week! Don´t worry, I didn´t die, ha, but the power went out while we were in the internet cafe and I wasn´t able to finish it.

We had cambios this week, and I am now in a city called ¨La Entrenada¨…I think. ha, Its close to Santa Rosa and its super nice because its no where near as hot here as it was in San Pedro. My area is called El Dorado, and its name fits. Its super beautiful, and there is a little bit of all of my favorite things. Theres a supermarket for food, the houses are all bright and beautiful, we´re surrounded by hills, everything is a hill, and I live in a mansion. Seriously. the kitchen is in a different room than our beds…more importantly, there is more than one room! ha, I´ll send pictures next week.

My new companion´s name is Hna Zelada, she is from Guatamala and is going to have 9 months this next week. She is awesome, always laughing, and she´s super good with people which is helping me learn to talk to people also. Also, she makes me do things, like talk on the phone with people, which is good for me.

I was trying to teach Hna Zelada the phrase…frase?…phrase “over the hill” and she thought I said “older than hell” haha, I laughed so hard. Theres a lot of instances like that that happen.

Dear Fam and Friends,
Happy Thanksgiving! Its hard to believe I’ve been on a mission for 3 months #practicallyanoldlady #joke I feel super green. and I’m starting to understand how stressed Hna Marroquin felt when she found out she would be training with only 4 months under her belt, but I guess this is an opportunity to rely almost completely on the spirit…and Preach My Gospel. that really is an inspired book and its contents apply to everyone, not just missionaries.

We had a Zone Conference this week. It was awesome, we read in Jacob 5 near the very end v 76 or so? It talks about how there were servants in the feild, and they “were few”. Our President asked us, “if you had a work that you loved and you had but few helpers, how would you feel about them? It really helped me put it into perspective. but this applies to everyone, you don’t have to be a full time missionary to share the gospel, we’re all called. the church has 15 or so million members, but compared to 7 Billion? we are few. God is working with us. Angels are preparing the way, for you and for me to share this Gospel with God’s children.

Right after Zone Conference we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. I came back to Las Brisas with Hna Escalante while Hna Marroquin went to El Carmen. She enjoyed being the Junior Companion. I enjoyed the exchange. Hna Escalante is from Mexico so her accent was easier to understand, and we got a lot accomplished, but the problem was that I expected Hna Marroquin to come back and be exactly like Hna Escalante. Which put a strain on our relationship. I had to learn, that just because its not my way, doesn’t mean its wrong. I also needed to learn to have more sympathy for Hna Marroquin, I completely ignored the fact that she only has 6 months on her mission, thats hardly more than me! But Heavenly Father helped us work it out, and I feel like I understand her much more than before.
There is a 10 year old in our area who got baptized with the last missionaries, but his Mother was unwilling to listen to the missionaries, but this week she told him that she is going to go to church! what a miracle, we’re going to go teach their family tonight and I’m so excited. I know its and answer to the prayers of little Jorgito.

Also we made Rice Crispies this week, but we used chocolate cornflakes. Aaand, I burnt the marshmellows #futuremom ha, but we ate it anyway, it tasted just like smores. or at least my smores, because I burn those too…

Love you guys! thanks for your emails, they help me so much, and Enjoy your Thanksgiving. (I also learned a lot about being grateful, but I don’t have time to write about it)

Hello Everyone,
Something is different this week. I´m not really sure what specifically changed, but everything seems to have improved, has improved. We had cambios, and I´m still in Brisas with Hna Marroquin (happy day!) and my district leader is now my zone leader and one of the Elders in the office (he also happens to be serving in the same ward as us) is now our district leader. We also found out that there’s a whole other neighborhood in our area that we didn´t know about. #awkward. That’s kind of an important thing to know. Ha, but it’s good.

I was talking to Hna Marroquin about the change, and I agree with her that it’s because we’re trying harder to follow the spirit. I also learned that I needed to humble myself, to realize that any success we have is because of God. This is his work, and we need to do it his way, that means testifying and following the spirit.

Something else that helped me was going to cambios, even though we didn’t have them, (Hna Marroquin’s entrainadora was leaving so we got special permission to go) I got to see all the new missionaries, and feel of the excitement they have for missionary work.

Funny story, while we were at cambios they asked me to give the opening prayer #huh. anyway there I was, in front of all these missionaries…praying…in Spanish. Let’s just say it was a little stressful. Then I close by saying “gracias por presidente viers y su esposa” ya…our mission president’s name is President Dester. President Viers was the old mission president that left in July. Before I even came to the mission. #couldhavehadaV8. It was really embarrassing.

Oh, I got proposed to today, don’t worry I said no. ha, he just wanted me for my citizenship ha.

oh, IMPORTANT: My p-day next week is on Tuesday, so don’t expect a letter from me on Monday.

Also I used up a whole pen. Do you realize how awesome that is? Not only is it the first time in my whole life, but it means I didn’t lose a pen for a whole month and a half. thats practically a miracle in and of itself.

It was Hna Marroquin’s six month anniversary and I wanted to do something special for her so I asked Hna Evelin if she could make a cake (because we all know I can’t cook a thing…also we don’t have an oven in our apartment) and it was super fun. Hna Marroquin is awesome. She’s literally half my size, but I think just about everybody would bet on her in a fight between the two of us, all the Elders are scared to play her in soccer,

Hna Evelin’s daughter is so funny, and sassy. We were leaving a visit with a family and I think she felt ignored or something because she goes, “A Dios feas” (Bye uglies) and runs off, I laughed so hard I almost dropped the stroller I was helping to carry out.

We found a lot of new investigators this week, including a little girl that is going to turn nine in December. Her grandma is a recent convert and mom goes to a different church, we’re talking to her mom, and praying that the Lord will soften her heart so she will join the church and support her daughter.

Love you guys lots! I miss you, but I’m so happy here. Keep writing me, I love to hear about everything going on back home, study your scriptures, Pray, and know that God loves you, and I love you.